Monday, February 3, 2014

Dr. Dinesh
Sharma is a cultural psychologist, marketing consultant and an acclaimed author
with a doctorate from Harvard
University. He is an Associate
Research Professor (Honorary) at the Institute for Global Cultural Studies,
SUNY-Binghamton; a senior fellow at Institute for International and
Cross-Cultural Research, NYC; and a columnist for Asia Times Online, Al Jazeera
English and The Global Intelligence, among other syndicated publications.

His
recent articles and opinions have appeared in the Wall Street Journal Online,
Wonkette.com, Free Lance-Star, Far Eastern Economic Review, Middle East Times,
Middle East Online, Epoch Times, Biotech Law Review, Health Affairs, Media
Monitors, DC Chronicles, Fredricksburg.com, MyCentralJersey.com, International
Psychology Bulletin, and other journals. Dr. Sharma has been profiled
domestically and internationally including in L'Echo, DeStandaard, Luxembourg
Wort, 352 Lux Magazine, The Eastern Eye, Asian Affairs, Cincinnati Herald and
The Skanner, to name a few.

On TV, Dinesh’s work has been favorably reviewed on Politics Tonight (WGN
News), Urban Update (WHDH Boston), City Line WABC Boston, KITV Hawaii, Bay
Sunday San Francisco, and many other shows. On Radio, he has been featured on
Conversations on the Coast in San
Francisco, Reality Check FM-4 Vienna, South African
Broadcast Corporation (SABC) and numerous other talk shows.

Furthermore,
he has been a consultant in the healthcare industry for major pharmaceutical,
biotech and medical device clients for about a decade. He is the author of “Barack
Obama in Hawaii and Indonesia: The Making of a Global President,”
which was rated as among the Top 10 Books of Black History for 2012 by the
American Library Association, Book List Online. Here, he talks about the
follow-up book, "The Global Obama."

Kam
Williams: Hi Dinesh, thanks for the interview.

Dinesh
Sharma: Any time. It’s very nice of you to conduct this interview. You reviewed
my earlier book and the new book, “The Global Obama.” So, I really appreciate
it.

KW:
What interested you in writing another book about Obama?

DS: Well,
first, Barack H. Obama is a landmark presidential figure as the first black,
multiracial, multicultural president from Hawaii and the Pacific. In the first book,
Barack Obama in Hawaii and Indonesia, as you know, I
documented, with ethnographic interviews, the childhood and adolescence of this
history-making president. The idea was to show that the childhood of a
historical leader speaks to the historical times and, in turn, shapes the
future in some important ways. When I lectured around the world for the
first book, I realized that he was more popular abroad than at home. I had
known that from some of the early surveys by the Pew Research
Center and The Economist.
But when I toured throughout Europe, Asia and Africa,
this was really brought home to me. So I wanted to do a book on that trend and
try to explore some of the reasons for this finding. Given that no author
has an expertise in all areas of the world, I decided to make this an edited
book, with help from friends who span the globe. In the new book, we have
covered five continents and more than twenty countries.

KW: Was
it a harder sell, since the President’s bloom has fallen off the rose, at least
domestically?

DS: It
wasn’t a hard sell with the publishers or the reviewers. Most reviewers got
the purpose of the project right away and supported it. In fact, the book is
part of a series that is headed by James MacGregor Burns, who wrote the classic
book on leadership and coined the term “transformational leadership,” Georgia
Sorensen, who worked in the Carter administration, and Ron Riggio, a professor
of leadership at Claremont
McKenna College.
Given that Obama is a relevant historical figure despite the negative polling
trends domestically, he has many more admirers than detractors at home and
abroad. In fact, the publisher wanted us to focus on his leadership style
within a cross-cultural context, which is the theme of the new book.

KW: How
do you explain his enduring popularity overseas?

DS: I
think it has partly to do with his international biography and global moorings
in almost all continents--Africa, Asia, Europe and the US, of
course. Professor Ali A. Mazrui calls him “the child of three continents.”
But if you include his Irish or European ancestry from his mother’s side of the
family, he may be called “the man of four continents” or the global president,
a symbol of the changing times.

KW:
What were you most surprised to learn about him in the course of your preparing
this book?

DS:
When I prepared the manuscript, the sheer enormity of the challenges the U.S. faces
abroad were mind-boggling. It became clear to me that the job of managing all
of these conflicts simultaneously is, indeed, very difficult, especially, if
the U.S.
wants to remain the global leader in the 21st Century. That’s why China does not
necessarily want to be in the position of a global superpower. The other
BRIC countries, Russia, India and Brazil, are not anywhere near being
global superpowers. Countries around the world expect the U.S. to
deliver, be engaged, and respond to their needs. Presidential leadership
is a really tough job, does come not easily. “To those much is given, much
is expected,” to paraphrase President Kennedy.

KW:
What has been your most special moment in your visits to the White House?

DS: Hard
to say, but I think watching the President in the East Room when he hosts some
of the sports teams, stars from the NBA, WNBA, and NFL, after they have won a
championship. Obama is a sports aficionado! You can really observe
that when he’s around athletes. He gets a kick out of it. His inner-jock
self comes out and his language becomes very
jocular.

KW:
What’s it like to be a member of the press corps accompanying President Obama
on a trip?

DS:
Very interesting. As an immigrant from India who lived in Chicago for many
years, or even as a graduate student at Harvard in psychology and human
development, I didn’t think or imagine that one day I would be covering the
first black president at the White House.

KW: You
traveled to various places where Obama grew up while researching your first
book about Obama. Where did you think the seed of his presidential destiny was
planted?

DS: Hawaii. His parents met
there and he attended one of the elite preparatory schools on the island, Punahou Academy. Hawaii
was the last state to join the Union in 1959 after the attack on Pearl Harbor and World War II. Obama’s father
arrived there as an exchange student in 1959 and Barack was born two years
after Hawaii became part of the U.S. It shaped not only his inner-most self,
his destiny, but also his vision of America as reflected in his saying, “There
is no Red America or Blue America, only the United States of America.” As the
first majority-minority state, you could say that Hawaii shaped Obama’s identity indelibly. They
both grew up together, in parallel, and are now leading America towards
being a blended nation, demographically.

KW:
What will be the focus of your next book about Obama?

DS: Not
clear yet, but something to do with American identity, politics and culture in
the era of globalization, similar to what I have been writing about lately.

KW: Is
there any question no one ever asks you, that you wish someone would?

DS: No
one has asked ever said to me, “You’re not African-American, so why are you so obsessed
with Obama? Why is Obama your muse?” Or, “Aren’t you tired of Obama yet? You
know his polling numbers are falling.”

KW:
Would you mind saying something controversial that would get this interview
tweeted?

DS:
President Obama will be an even bigger statesman in his post-presidency, while
working for Africa’s development.

KW:
What is your secret wish?

DS: To
smoke a cigar with the President on the roof of the White House But, alas, he
does not smoke anymore.

KW: The
bookworm Troy Johnson question: What was the last book you read?

DS:
“The Future” by Al Gore, “A Singular Woman” by Jenny Scott, “Legal Orientalism”
by Teemu Ruskola, and I just started reading “The Great Soul” by Joseph
Lelyveld.

KW:
What is your favorite dish to cook?

DS:
Fish Curry.

KW: The
Mike Pittman question: What was your best career decision?

DS: To
attend Harvard, and recently the decision to write two books on President
Obama, in that order. Hopefully, more to come!

KW:
When you look in the mirror, what do you see?

DS:
There is no limit to what one can do!

KW: If
you could have one wish instantly granted, what would that be for?

DS:
That both my children will be well-educated, well-read and well-travelled.

KW: The
Judyth Piazza question: What key quality do you believe all successful people
share?

DS:
Dogged determination – consistency and persistence in performance. It’s
not just enough to have good ideas, one has to deliver.

KW: The
Michael Ealy question: If you could meet any historical figure, who would it
be?

DS:
There are so many – I would like to have met Freud, Jung, Gandhi, Nehru,
Lincoln, Churchill, Martin Luther King, Mandela, Claude Levi-Strauss, Dali,
Margret Mead, Camus, Foucault, Sri Aurobindo, Krishnamurti, other Indian
Philosophers. And the list goes on. As you can see, I think intellectuals are
historical figures, too, because they can change the world with the power of
their ideas.

KW:
What advice do you have for anyone who wants to write about a president?

DS:
Always follow your path, or the road less travelled.

KW:
Thanks again for the time, Dinesh, and best of luck with the book.

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The Sly Fox Film Reviews publishes the content of film critic Kam Williams. Voted Most Outstanding Journalist of the Decade by the Disilgold Soul Literary Review in 2008, Kam Williams is a syndicated film and book critic who writes for 100+ publications around the U.S., Europe, Asia, Africa, Canada and the Caribbean. He is a member of the New York Film Critics Online, the NAACP Image Awards Nominating Committee and Rotten Tomatoes.

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